Gone Fishin'
by Quill of Molliemon
Summary: Crossover, AU. Collection of shorts that follows "A Wild Tomboy Appeared!". Young Minato, Young Kushina, and a fishing pole... Fish Tail 3: Here There be Dragons. Read, review, and enjoy!
1. Fish Tail 1: Lightning on the Line

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Naruto or Pokémon. If I did, I'd have a lot of money…but I don't. So don't bother suing, you won't get anything out of it.

**Notes:** (Crossover, could be a crack!fic if you want) Here there be Naruto characters and Pokémon monsters! This is a _collection of shorts_ which follows "A Wild Tomboy Appeared!". I have three pieces in mind so far (as the title implies, all are centered around fishing) and they all roughly happen in chronological order. If I come up with more and they happen out of order, they will be labeled accordingly.

If you're ever confused on the order that any stories in this series/fused universe should be read, just check out my profile! Everything is listed in order in my bio.

I hope that you enjoy it!

* * *

**Fish Tail 1:**_  
Lightning on the Line_

Minato found it a paradox that loud, energetic Kushina Uzumaki could love fishing so much. Fishing was an activity that required a great deal of patience and sitting still and quiet for long stretches of time. Kushina was a tomboy and always in motion, always talking, always doing something. And yet she would fish…a lot.

Whenever they came to a stop near a body of water, she would settle herself down by it for a few hours a day and fish with her rod. Minato found himself looking forward to when she went fishing as it was the only time she shut up for more than five minutes at a time. So he did his best to make sure that they always camped out by some lake or stream or pond so that she could fish.

He'd resigned himself to the fact that he wouldn't be rid of the rowdy girl until she was good and ready to leave him. After their initial meeting on the way to the seashore, she just kept making excuses to follow him. Once he'd tried to ditch her by leaving the pokémon center early after an overnight stay without telling her, and she'd tracked him down and hit him, yelling at him at how mean it was to leave a buddy behind. Minato had not been aware that they were "buddies" but to avoid being hit again he didn't bother trying to lose her anymore.

Currently, the red head was fishing in a deep river, her body relaxed and calm as her rod dangled in her hands. Kiroi, his pikachu, napped by her side, while her kabuto crouched on her other side. Minato gratefully drank in the quiet while Hana, his bulbasaur basked in the warm sunshine.

He really didn't see why his pikachu liked the girl so much. A few nice scratches, a few little treats, and the yellow electric mouse seemed to be nearly as devoted to her as it was to him. Kushina declared the reason that she and Kiroi got along so well was that it was a "girl thing" and perhaps it was.

Minato laid back on the grassy ground and stared up at the blue sky as he thought. He had three badges already and Silk Town seemed like a good place to go to get a fourth badge. But before then, he wanted to acquire a few more pokémon.

In addition to his bulbasaur and pikachu, he had a poliwag and had recently captured a murkrow. That left him with two slots to fill at least. Considering that the gym in Silk Town was supposedly a bug-based gym, it seemed to be a good idea to get a fire-type to back up his flying-type murkrow.

_I'd like a vulpix… Or a ponyta…that'd be even better. I could ride a ponyta once I train it enough so that I don't have to walk everywhere._

Once he triumphed in Silk Town, he figured he'd seek out one more badge before heading home. He wanted to have a strong experienced team when he went back to Myouboku Town and challenged his uncle for the Toad badge. Losing to his uncle would be a thousand times more embarrassing than losing to some gym leader that he didn't know.

Minato closed his eyes and started to doze off…

"Hee! I got something!"

The tomboy's shout jolted him fully awake. He sat up to watch her struggle with whatever was on the end of her fishing line. She tugged on the rod, periodically reeling in some of the line, dragging whatever water creature she'd snagged forcibly to the surface. With one final yank, she pulled something free of the water and flipped it behind her on the grass.

The pokémon she hooked most often when fishing were magikarp. She would then send out her own magikarp, Tsunami, to battle the other wimpy fish pokémon to build her experience so that she would become a fearsome gyarados. Other times she'd catch goldeen, barboach, shellder, clamperl, or krabby, and would send either her totodile or her kabuto to fight them. A few times she'd even caught ordinary fish, and did a lot of cursing at their uselessness as she threw them back.

He had yet to see her capture anything in a pokéball that she had fished up.

But what she pulled from the river was not a magikarp, a goldeen, a barboach, a shellder, a clamperl, or a krabby. It was a small blue thing the shape of a squashed ball, with two little fins on its rear and a little fin on each side. Its eyes were large and yellow with odd X-shaped pupils that gave it the appearance of a dead cartoon fish. Two long, thin, fleshy antennae grew out of its back with heavy, yellow teardrop shapes on the ends that seemed to glow.

Kushina stared at it for a moment, and then squealed in delight. "Ah, I want it! Kiroi!" She turned to the pikachu. "Pretty please help me!"

Kiroi eagerly agreed, and Minato's shoulders slumped.

_Pikachu thief…_

"Give it a _thunder wave_!" the girl instructed and the pikachu obeyed.

However, instead of the burst of static paralyzing the fish, it didn't seem to have any effect at all. If anything, the glowing tips of its antennae glowed a bit brighter. Minato pulled out his pokédex and did some consulting while Kushina had Kiroi try the attack a few more times with no better success.

"Chinchou," he muttered as he ran through the entry. "A dual water and electric type…" …_Which is probably why she wants it._ "…its special ability is…oh." Minato snapped the device shut and called out to his pikachu. "Kiroi, stop! You can't win that way!"

"What?" Kushina shouted back as Kiroi backed off, looking a bit dejected. "Why?"

"Its special ability is _volt absorb_," he told her.

She stared blankly back at him. "And that means…?"

"It means," he sighed, "that electric attacks don't reduce its health any; instead they restore its health. Hitting it with anything electric only makes it stronger."

"Oh." She turned hopefully to his bulbasaur. "Hana, would you help me?"

Hana, at least, looked up at him for permission, which was more than Kiroi had done. Minato glanced over at Kushina who, for a girl who normally looked so boyish, was giving him a very effective pleading pout. With a sigh, he waved his go-ahead and Hana trotted towards the odd electric fish, which had spat out the hook from the rod and was slowly crawling back towards the water and escape.

"Okay, Hana," Kushina grinned. "Give it a _leech seed_!"

The bulbasaur fired a single seed from the plant bulb on her back at the fish. The seed dug into the fish's smooth skin and then sprouted a vine-y plant that quickly covered half the chinchou and started sapping its strength. The strange electric fish squeaked in alarm, but couldn't get the plant off, or hit the more agile bulbasaur, no matter how much it _flail_ed.

"Alright," the tomboy said as the chinchou tired. "Hana, give it a good _stun spore_ and we should be done!"

Hana obligingly sprayed a glittering, brownish cloud of powder from her bulb and onto the fish. The chinchou's weak struggled slowed even further, and then stopped as the spores took full effect. And then Kushina dug an empty pokéball from her disaster of a bag and made her throw.

As soon as the red light went out, signaling a successful capture, she was celebrating…loudly.

"Yeah! Score!" she yelled and scooped the sphere up to do an impromptu little dance. "Gotcha! Thanks Kiroi! Thanks Hana!" She picked up her kabuto and spun around a bit before glancing over her shoulder at Minato. "And thank you, too, Namikaze."

"You're welcome," he sighed.

Kushina went about celebrating a bit more as she released her newly-caught pokémon and went about healing it. First the _leech seed_ came off, then she had her kabuto gently rinse the _stun spore_ off, and then she persuaded Kiroi to give it a jolt of electricity so that it could recover its strength. Then she sat down on the grass and let out her totodile and magikarp so that they could meet their new friend.

"…I think I'll call you Hikari," she decided as she cooed over the chinchou in her lap. "That means 'light' and those glowy things on your head make light, right? Yeah. You'll do great with us—you can defend everyone against electric pokémon! And…oh, I got it! You'll be great paired with Kiroi in a double battle! I can totally see it now! You can protect her against rock and ground types by drowning them! And what water pokémon can't learn some kind of ice attack? It'll be awesome!"

The blonde, twelve-year-old boy flopped backwards onto the grass and felt his heart sink. Listening to her go on about future double battles with his pokémon only reinforced the fact that she wasn't going anywhere. He was never going to escape the clutches of the loud, crazy tomboy.

_I'm doomed…_


	2. Fish Tail 2: Scales of the Heart

**Fish Tail 2:**_  
Scales of the Heart_

"…Why are we out here again?"

It was very, very early; the sun was barely a gray smudge on the horizon. They were on the sandy shores of _Nami no Kuni_, a small island nation. Kushina was bright-eyed and positioning herself just out of reach of the gentle waves with her fishing rod in hand. Minato sat on the sand above the tide-line, wishing that he was still sleeping in the local pokémon center.

"Because a migration is starting this week!" With a practiced flick of her wrist, she sent her line far out into the ocean. "I heard it on the TV last night."

The thirteen-year-old boy squinted sleepily at her back. "A migration of what?"

"Luvdisc!" she replied as she set loose her kabuto, croconaw, and chinchou.

He blinked at her several times. "…luvdisc?"

"That's what I said," she muttered and started slowly reeling in her line.

Minato scrubbed at his eyes and pulled out his pokédex. Performing a quick search, he looked up the pokémon in question. With each entry the device listed on the pokémon his jaw dropped further and further.

_"It is said that a couple finding this pokémon will be blessed with eternal love… This heart-shaped pokémon earned its name by swimming after loving couples it spotted in the ocean's waves… Luvdisc's heart-shaped body is a symbol of love and romance. It is said that any couple meeting this pokémon is promised a loving relationship that never ends… There is a custom from long ago of giving a luvdisc as a gift to express one's feelings of love…"_

"You…you _want_ a-a _luvdisc_!" Minato sputtered in absolute disbelief.

While Kushina had a strong affinity for water pokémon, she stayed away from "cutesy" pokémon. In fact, she preferred the fiercest-looking beasts that she could find, such as Tsunami her gyarados. So, all that lovey-dovey information on luvdiscs aside, he couldn't believe that she'd be interested on the heart-shaped pokémon because its picture looked so cute.

"No," she snorted, wrinkling her nose in disgust as she made another cast. "I don't want a _luvdisc_; those things are so dumb. I want to steal their scales!"

"Their scales?" He pushed a few buttons on his pokédex to do a bit more research.

_"Wild luvdisc are known to sometimes hold heart scales, rainbow-colored heart-shaped scales that are highly coveted by collectors and jewelers."_

"So…you want to fish up luvdiscs and steal their heart scales…for money?"

That made a lot of sense. Kushina tended to burn through a lot of money as, even though they were about the same size, she tended to eat twice as much as he did. Where she put all the food when she ate it, and how she didn't get fat, he really didn't know and didn't want to know.

"Exactly!" she laughed and continued fishing.

Minato sighed as he put his pokédex away and settled into to wait.

Minutes later, she got her first bite. Luvdiscs were small fish pokémon so her fight to reel it in was short. The pink fish monster was soon flopping on the sandy shore, and she directed her monsters in for the take down.

She had Hikari use _thunder wave_ on the pathetic-looking luvdisc to paralyze it. Once it was helpless, she had Crusher and Slasher frisk the pink fish in search of a scale, and remove it if there was one, while she re-baited the hook. And then the luvdisc was thrown back and she started fishing all over again.

Fishing was slow, but as the sun rose it started to pick up. By mid-morning, she was pulling in a luvdisc every minute or so, pausing a few times to run to a bait shop to get a fresh supply. Her monsters actually started to get tired, so she had them sit out and borrowed Kiroi the pikachu and Hana the ivysaur off him to incapacitate and rob the fish as she pulled them from the sea.

Minato lazed a safe distance away and watched as her smile pile of glittering heart scales slowly grew. Depending on how much she could get for them, she wouldn't have to worry about food money for at least a month. And for that month, he wouldn't have to worry about her stealing food off his plate when he wasn't looking.

"Hey, Namikaze?"

He glanced up from the nonsense pattern he'd been drawing in the sand with his finger. "Hm?"

She lowered her rod and turned away from the sea. "How long do you think we've been traveling together?"

"Oh…a year and a half at least," he answered. "Why?"

"We-ell…" The red-headed girl walked right up to him. "In all that time, I've never seen you fish."

"I don't have to," he said with a slight frown, craning his neck to look up at her. "I already have a water pokémon—Gama."

"You don't have to capture everything you hook. It's a good way to find wild opponents to train against." She narrowed her eyes suspiciously at him. "…Do you even know _how_ to fish?"

"Does it matter?"

She put her free hand on her hip. "You don't know how to fish, do you?"

"No," he growled. "So what?"

"Today you shall learn!" she declared.

Before he could protest, she hauled him to his feet and dragged him towards the ocean. He barely had a chance to get his shoes off and roll his pant legs up so that the rising tide wouldn't soak them. And then she shoved the handle of her fishing rod into his hands.

"Go for it!"

Minato stared down at the device in his hands. He'd seen Kushina use it countless times. So it couldn't be so hard… Right?

She would just flick her wrist and the line would fly out. So that's what he did. Except…the hook, and the funny red-and-white floating thing (which had an uncanny resemblance to a pokéball), and the line failed to go anywhere.

"No, no, now," the tomboy sighed and pointed to a thin metal loop that half-enclosed the spool of fishing line. "Push that lever to unlock the spool so you can cast the line."

"Okay," he muttered and flipped the lever…immediately causing the baited line to drop into the sand.

Kushina managed to muzzle a scream of frustration into a nasty growl. "Reel it in." Once he got the hook off the sand, she further explained what he needed to do. "Okay, when you flip the lever, you need to keep a finger on the spool so that it doesn't do that. When you're casting, you take your finger off the line so that it flies out over the water. Think of casting the line like throwing a pokéball," she suggested. "Release the line too soon, and it'll fly too high and not far enough, or even fly off behind you. Release the line too late, and you're just throwing it into the ground."

"That makes sense," Minato muttered, his ears burning in embarrassment.

Following her analogy, he tried to think of casting like throwing a pokéball at a pokémon. He moved the lever, careful to keep a finger pressed against the fishing line on the spool, and flicked his wrist, releasing his hold when the tip of the rod was aimed at the horizon. But…he released a little bit _too much_.

"Did you just throw my rod into the water?!" she shrieked.

He stared at his empty hands in horror. "I—"

"Crusher, fetch my rod!" Kushina ordered.

The croconaw hurriedly waded out into the light surf and groped around under the surface before finding the fishing implement and carrying it back in his claws. She took the pole back and checked it over for damage before shoving it back in Minato's hands. And then she slapped him upside the head.

"Don't do that ever again!" she snapped. "You know what? Let me help you."

The girl stood behind him and grasped the rod over his hands. In order to accomplish the reach, her chest was tight against his back and she was practically breathing into his right ear. It was like the wind was knocked out of him and all the stupid, _stupid_ stuff that his pokédex had told him about luvdisc and the love legends attached to them rattled around in his otherwise non-functioning brain.

And then she stepped away and the red top half of the floating thing marked the hook far out into the sea.

"…How'd that happen?"

"I helped you cast," she answered. "Weren't you paying attention?"

A nervous sweat prickled at the back of his neck. "Er…"

"For such a smart guy, you can be really stupid sometimes, Sunshine," she muttered, shaking her head. "Just reel in the line nice and slow…"

The following hour was an exercise in humiliation. It took at least ten casts before Minato got the technique down passably enough. On the eleventh cast, he got a bite, but he pulled too hard and accidentally yanked the hook out of the fish's mouth. He did a little better after that, but he had yet to get anything all the way to the shore and out of the water.

"Why are you making me do this anyway?" he huffed after yet another failure.

"You keep going on about how you want to be the best trainer, so you ought to know about all the ways to catch monsters to train them. And what if you decide you want a species of pokémon that you can only encounter by fishing for it? Better to learn now, when there's tons of luvdisc around to catch, than later."

"What luvdisc?!" Minato sputtered in frustration. "Is the migration over already?"

"Nah, it's supposed to last two days," Kushina said. "But it's probably not a constant stream of fish. I think we're in a dead spot between schools."

"Great," he grumbled. "How much longer are you going to make me do this?"

"Land one pokémon and I'll take my rod back," she replied with a grin.

He rolled his eyes, and then the red-and-white floaty thing (a bobber, Kushina had informed him when he had _dared_ refer to it as a "floaty thing" aloud) twitched, wobbled, and then dipped under the water.

"Ooh! You got a bite!" the girl cheered. "Reel it in! Reel it in!"

Clenching his teeth, Minato began the tricky process of getting his catch out of the sea. He put his entire focus into the task, determined to succeed so that he could stop fishing because he was sick of it. And then, with one final pull on the rod, he pulled something out of the sea.

…And it collided with his face.

"Gak!" he yelped and scrambled away from the damp thing that had smacked him in the head.

"Aw! You hooked a luvdisc!" Kushina laughed.

Minato glared at the pink heart-like fish pokémon as it flopped on the beach. "…Wonderful."

"Hey! Maybe it has a heart scale!" The tomboy was practically vibrating with excitement. "Check and see!"

Kiroi stepped in and paralyzed the luvdisc while his ivysaur ran her vines over its body in search of a scale. Hana seemed to find something and his pikachu scampered over and retrieved the something with her nimble paws. Both his pokémon cheerfully presented the heart scale to him as Kushina booted the robbed luvdisc back out into the surf.

"Thank you," he said with a polite smile as he accepted the coin-sized scale.

"Congratulations!" Kushina grinned. And then she sternly held out her hand. "Now give me back my rod before you break it!"

* * *

Many hours of fishing later, Minato sat beside Kushina as a nearly full moon rose over the sea. They'd collected driftwood and he'd had his ponyta, Kirin, turn it into a campfire for them. Enjoying the fire with them were Kiroi, Hana, Crusher, and Slasher.

It was the height of summer, so the campfire really wasn't needed; the night was nice and warm. But after eating dinner, Kushina decided it was the perfect night for a fire on the beach. He had nothing against the idea (as there was no fishing involved—he was quite done with fishing) and so here they were.

Kushina stared into the flames, a pensive look on her face. It was rare for her to look so gloomy and troubled. The few times he dared ask her about it, she'd bluntly tell him it was none of his business.

Minato chewed at the inside of his cheek as he watched her be hypnotized by the flames. It was unnatural to see her this way. While she would be this quiet when she was fishing, she looked happy. She didn't look happy now.

"Hey…when is your birthday?"

He didn't know where the question had come from, but it was true that he didn't know when her birthday was. While she knew when his birthday was as she'd seen him call home that day and overhead his uncle teasing him about it, he'd never seen her making a similar call home. In fact, he'd _never_ seen her call home or speak to any family member. She'd sent a few short postcards somewhere, but that was it.

"July tenth," she answered.

Minato gaped at her. "Isn't that tomorrow?!"

"So what?" she shrugged, still staring into the fire listlessly.

He was left speechless for a minute. With her generally exuberant personality, he thought that she would be excited about her birthday, when she would be thirteen years old too. But she didn't care…?

Minato groped around in his pocket and pulled out the heart scale he'd acquired earlier. "Here!" He shoved the scale towards her.

She frowned at the heart-shaped object. "What's this for?"

"For your birthday."

The girl squinted at him. "But I already have a ton of heart scales."

"Yeah, but every heart scale is different," he pointed out. "I bet you could get a lot of money for this one."

Heart scales were rainbow-colored objects with patterns as unique as snowflakes. But the heart scale he'd gotten only had a few colors. It was mostly blue with hints of purple, teal, and pink. With such a rare color scheme, it was likely worth a lot more than the average scale.

The tomboy slowly took the scale from his fingers. "You sure you want to give this to me?"

"Of course," he nodded. "You'd get more use out of it then I would."

"Hm…" She studied the shimmering scale in the orange-yellow light of the fire. "…This one seems lucky. I think I'll keep it!"

"For a rainy day?" he asked curiously.

"No, forever!" she laughed. "Why would I sell something that's good luck?"

"Well, alright," he shrugged.

"Now," she turned back to the fire and poked it with a stick. "I say we come back here tomorrow night and roast marshmallows!"

"S'mores?" he suggested.

"Genius!" she cried, raising her fist to the stars. "I knew there was a reason I kept you around!"

Minato rolled his eyes that declaration, but smiled. Her mysterious glum mood was destroyed and now all was right again in the world. And, so long as she didn't coerce him into fishing again, tomorrow looked to be a good day.

_I don't ever want to fish again…that's Kushina's deal._


	3. Fish Tail 3: Here There be Dragons

**Fish Tail 3:**_  
Here There be Dragons_

Minato tugged his dark blue coat tighter around his body as he watched the sun slowly rise over the jagged teeth of the Kage Mountains. It was late fall, but it almost felt like winter in the thinner air of the higher elevations. Hana his ivysaur sat beside him, drinking in the morning sunlight and sharing in his body heat.

It had been a long time since he'd been in the mountains. There was no pokémon researcher in his hometown of Myouboku, so to start off as a trainer he'd first had to travel almost a full day by elevated cable cars to Tower City just outside of the mountains. Professor Homura Mitokado was a sour old man, but respected enough to be able to get top starter pokémon to hand out to new trainers instead of having to give out pikachu, pichu, eevee, and more common species like some lesser-known rural professors, or poor professors in big cities had to.

He'd stayed away from home because he knew that as soon as he returned, his uncle would want him to make his challenge. Minato didn't want to disappoint his uncle by not succeeding on his first try. So he captured and trained his pokémon and challenged other gyms and he waited until he felt absolutely ready.

_I think we're ready._ Minato rubbed his hands together, using friction to push away the creeping numbness brought on by the cold air. _Once we get through the mountains, we'll be ready to handle anything that Jiraiya-oji-san throws at us._

They were taking the scenic route, of course. There was no hurry to get to Myouboku Town so he was heading there by the most circuitous route he could figure. So far they'd been in the mountains for two days and, at the least, it would take them just over two weeks to reach their destination.

That was, if there were no delays or detours.

"It's early…why are you awake?"

Minato turned away from the view to see Kushina sticking her head out of the small, dome-shaped tent. Her eyes were barely open and her short red hair was sticking up in all directions. Crusher the croconaw slipped around her and out of the tent to stumble around their small campsite, occasionally yawning and displaying his impressive maw of sharp teeth.

"I just am," Minato answered, doing his best not to laugh at her. "You can go back to sleep if you're still tired."

"Mmph," the thirteen-year-old girl grunted in a very un-ladylike manner. "But I thought we were going to see your uncle. Don't you want to go see him?"

"He knows I'm coming," Minato replied with a shrug. "He won't go on any trips until I get back in town. There's no hurry."

She squinted at him, then sighed and disappeared back into the tent. Minutes later she reappeared with her gray second-hand coat on and, still wearing her washed-out orange pajamas (which was getting short in the sleeves and pant legs), ambled over to side on the other side of Hana. Drowsily fingering Hana's waxy pink flower bud, she scrubbed the sleep from her eyes as she stared out at the view he'd been admiring.

"…So, what cool rock formations are we going to see today?" the tomboy asked.

"Well, let's see…" He reached into his coat pocket and pulled out his map of the mountains. Unfolding the paper, his finger traced to their approximate location, and then drifted along the route he had planned. "If we keep along this trail we should see…Taillow Cliffs…Torkoal Rock…"

"What's that?" Kushina interrupted, jabbing her finger at a spot on the map near his own finger.

"That is…Mirage Lake," he said, squinting at the tiny print.

"Mirage Lake…" She combed her finger through her messy red hair as she thought. "Oh! I remember hearing about that place. Can we go there?"

Minato studied the map for a moment before nodding. "Sure."

"Woo!" the girl cheered and scampered back to the tent to get dressed.

He chuckled softly and patted Hana on the head. "I suppose there must be some rare water pokémon in Mirage Lake that she wants…"

* * *

Mirage Lake was very remote, and barely big enough to be considered a lake. It was eerily smooth and reflective, making it look more like a mirror than a body of water. Minato admired the magical view as he caught his breath from the strenuous hike to the lake. Kushina immediately began combing along the lakeshore, as if looking for something.

"What are you looking for?" he asked when he caught up with her.

"I knew this old fisherman, who claimed that he's fished all these remote lakes and rivers in all sorts of countries. He said he was here once, and he fished at this one particular spot and hooked something _awesome_." She critically scanned her surroundings before walking a little further around the glassy lake. "I want to see if he really did what he claimed or if he was just telling me fish stories."

"Ah."

Eventually, she seemed to find the spot the old fisherman had described to her, and the girl settled in to fish. Minato watched her cast for a while before wandering off to explore the surrounding forest. She'd probably be at fishing for the rest of the day so he had plenty of time to kill.

A lot had happened since he'd left home. First there'd been Hana, then Kiroi, and then Gama. And for a while, it had just been them. Next had come Kage the murkrow and Kirin the ponyta. He'd captured a few other monsters, like Senkou the eevee and Kaiju the nidoran, but none of them really seemed to fit into his team. They were good pokémon, but their types didn't quite fit in the rest of his regulars. They just weren't what he was looking for…

Minato came across a stunted berry bush in his aimless wanderings and picked the few ripe sitrus berries that it had produced.

_I wonder…what will Jiraiya-oji-san say when he meets her?_

He'd never said all that much to his uncle about his traveling companion during his phone calls home. At first, it was because he was trying to ignore the girl that had latched on to him for no discernable reason. And now, it was because he didn't want to deal with how his uncle might react to him traveling with a girl.

_I hope he doesn't say anything embarrassing…_ Minato paused, and shook his head at himself. _Of course he's going to say something embarrassing._

Suddenly rather glum, he headed back to the lake. It was a good thing that Kushina had wanted this detour. He wanted to put off the future humiliation for as long as possible.

"So, how's the fishing?"

"Nothing so far," she answered and waved him closer. "Watch the line for me; I need to use the little girl's bush."

Minato sighed and took hold of the fishing pole while she vanished to answer nature's call. Kushina kept trying to get him into fishing. But he still hated it.

And of course as soon as she was gone something took the hook.

"Damn it!" he cursed, fumbling with the rod. "Kushina!"

"Reel it in!" she shouted back. "I'll be right there!"

Clenching his teeth, Minato set himself to the task. Whatever was on the line was strong. After nearly being pulled into the lake, he called on his ivysaur and poliwhirl to brace him. And Kushina was taking her sweet time in coming back.

"Did you get it in yet?! Did you get it in yet?!"

"No," Minato growled as he did his best not to lose the rod in the lake. "Hurry up and take this thing!"

"Nah, you almost got it," Kushina cheered. "Finish it!"

Grunting in annoyance, he wrestled with the rod some more. The glassy waters of the lake now churned and frothed around the line as it zigzagged back and forth in front of him. Gama clung to his elbow while Hana had her vines tied around his waist. They all gave one final heave and in an explosion of spray…

_No way…_

"Huh. So he wasn't just telling fish stories," Kushina remarked. "There really are dragons in Mirage Lake!"

The dratini whined and wriggled on the muddy lakeshore as it tried to spit the hook from its mouth. It was longer than Minato was tall and despite its light weight it was strong. The serpentine dragon was an exceptionally rare sight, and it left Minato frozen speechless.

"…Well," Kushina whispered in his ear, and with a sharp poke to the ribs, "aren't you going to catch it?"

"But—"

"Hurry! It got the hook out!"

He flinched, and all worries about how it should be hers because it was her rod and she'd done most of the fishing were set aside in favor of catching the rare beast.

"Hana, _stun spore_!"

His ivysaur immediately retracted her vines from his torso and bounded closer to spray a cloud of brownish paralyzing spores onto the dragon. The dratini wailed and its thrashed slowed as the spores took effect. But then its pale blue and gray skin started to peel and flake off.

"What's it doing?" Kushina muttered.

"_Shed skin_," Minato muttered. "It won't stay paralyzed for a while. Hana, _leech seed_ and then _razor leaf_!"

Hana fired a seed from her flower bud at the dragon, which sprouted an energy-sapping plant. And then, before the plant could spread too far, she fired a flurry of razor-sharp leaves from the plant on her back, cutting the dratini's smooth skin. The wild pokémon wailed at the stinging pain and lashed back with a paralyzing wave of static fired from the gray spot on its forehead.

"Whoa, it knows _thunder wave_?" Kushina said as Minato recalled the paralyzed ivysaur to her pokéball. "Wicked."

"Gama, give it a few _double slap_s," he instructed.

The poliwhirl bounded forward and began laying hefty slaps on the dragon with his broad white hands. The dratini tried to flip away, but the draining _leech seed_ and the lingering effects of the _stun spore_ made it clumsy. It tried another _thunder wave_, but Gama managed to dance aside and only get partially numbed.

"Now use _hypnosis_," Minato ordered.

Gama faced down the dragon and the black spiral on his white belly started to spin. Mesmerized by the swirling pattern, the dratini's dark eyes started to droop. And then, after a lot of wobbling and fighting it, the dragon collapsed into sleep.

Minato had a moment of panic when he couldn't find his ultra-ball (last year's birthday gift from his uncle). But he eventually located the yellow-and-black-topped sphere and immediately used it on the sleeping dragon. There was no way he was taking any chances with this particular pokémon capture.

When the sphere stilled and the red light went out, Minato sagged in relief.

Kushina whooped like a banshee.

"That was awesome!"

"Yeah," Minato smiled weakly and rubbed at his ear. "It was, wasn't it?" He bit his lip. "Are…you sure you didn't want to catch it?"

"Namikaze," she rolled her eyes, "if I wanted a dragon, I'd catch a horsea, get a dragon scale, and raise it up into a kingdra."

He laughed. _Of course… It has to be a water type._ "Well, thank you."

"No problem," she snorted. "Now that we have what we came for, let's get going so you can show that off!"

"Alright," Minato agreed.

Gathering up their packs, they were soon leaving Mirage Lake behind. If the path back to the main trail wasn't so steep, Kushina probably would've been bouncing. Minato just followed after her, soaking in his unexpected accomplishment.

_A dratini,_ he thought in awe as he admired the now filled ultra-ball in the palm of his hand. _A dragon. I think I'll call him…Ryuu._


End file.
